by Ed Joyce

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Police officers stand with Scott Dekraai, Oct. 12, 2011, who was being held in a patrol car at the scene near the Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, Calif. Reed Saxon/AP

A new trial date was set Friday for Scott Dekraai, accused of murdering eight people in Seal Beach in October 2011. The new trial date is March 25, 2013.

Santa Ana Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals asked Dekraai's defense attorney, Scott Sanders, what a realistic trial date might be. He told the judge three years from when the case was filed. That would mean a trial date sometime in 2014.

"People are watching," said Judge Goethals. "This case involves facts that are unusual, but we're going to get this case to trial."

The original trial date was two months away — Oct. 15 — and Sanders said his team needed more time to prepare with volumes of evidence to go over.

"We are still processing the volumes of material, interviews on DVDs, and just received more material from the District Attorney's Office on July 27," Sanders told the judge.

In setting the March 25, 2013 trial date, the judge added he would issue a continuance from that date if there is "good legal cause."